


The Ballad of Wild Rose

by eos_3



Category: Tiger & Bunny
Genre: Crush, F/M, Gen, One-Sided Attraction, Songwriting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-08-26
Updated: 2011-08-26
Packaged: 2018-03-03 02:22:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 845
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2834672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eos_3/pseuds/eos_3
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Karina is trying to come up with new material for her songs, but her crush on Kotetsu keeps leaking into her lyrics.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Ballad of Wild Rose

**Author's Note:**

> The strikethroughs and italics are Karina's editing marks and are intentionally left in.
> 
> Written for the T&B Prompt meme

_Love with you_  
Impossible  
I won't even give it a chance

_Holding you_  
Improbable  
You know you can't even dance

_But it's you_  
I'm thinking of  
It's just you  
 ~~Tiger~~  
In my dreams

  


Karina glared in annoyance at the dreadful lyric she'd scribbled on the edge of her history notes. She could hear the song in her head already, hear herself singing it. It came so easily she almost wanted to call it inspired, but it was just the truth spattered across a few verses. An insipid, corny, awful love song that she shouldn't even sing, on the off-chance someone actually understood who she was singing about.

Of course, the first chance she got she was going to transcribe the notes of the song. It wasn't too bad by itself; the lyrics could be changed later. Except for the fact that she didn't want to change it. She could scarcely hold back from humming it. Karina looked down at her clenched hands and realized she'd snapped the tip off of her pencil.

She grimaced down at the broken lead and splintered wood, wishing class would end, so she could scream. Why did she want to sing about him? Why wouldn't he just get out of her mind? He was so old! And a total goofball. Except when he was looking at her that one certain way, and her stomach dropped out and she just wanted to... Stupid, stupid, stupid, sexy Tiger!

“Gah!” she said aloud, though not too loudly - none of the other girls were looking at her as if they noticed.

She flipped to a blank page in her notebook, trying to forget what was on the previous one. The indentations from writing looked like canyons she could read them so easily. She flipped to the next page. That was better, but she could still see it a little. Again, she turned it over, almost to the last ten pages, expecting to see more blue lines and fresh white paper. She saw instead a full page of her own frenzied, frequently scratched out writing.

 

_The Ballad of Wild Rose_

Another night, a fresh new stage  
How did I get here, how do I grow  
In the dark, wearing out my soul  
Old man looked across the keys  
He already knew what I wanted to be,  
bought my heart for a dollar

Just one and I'm done for

Did you know I'm a wild rose, honey  
Want to feel it all, I'm ready  
 ~~But you won't ever know it~~ _fix later_

I'm a wild rose that's just me, honey  
Want to feel it all, I said it  
 ~~But for now I'll take what I've got~~ _fix_

Those eyes are so warm,  
I hope, I wonder at the feeling  
Does he even know?  
A sunbeam punches  
right through the clouds  
I was frozen, now I'm just cold

~~Just a little cold now~~ _maybe "chilly"?_

Did you know I'm a wild rose, honey  
Want to take you in, I'm ready  
But still I'll watch you go

I'm a wild rose, it's true, honey  
Want to take you in, vine and thorn  
But right now the door is closed

~~I'm growing, growing up~~  
So tall and strong, ~~daddy~~  
You know that day  
I found the sun ~~daddy~~  
And it's oh so high  
I'll never never catch it, ~~daddy~~  
You know it if I do I'll die _REWORK_

The bloom withers and it fades

I'll always be a wild rose, honey  
There's a long road ahead, waiting  
And time it moves so slow

I'll always be your wild rose

  


The last verse wrenched her heart and it echoed on and on in her mind. Karina remembered when she'd written it - right after half their team, including Kotetsu, ended up in the hospital. There were round wrinkled spots from the tears dropping off her chin. Strange that she had forgotten that the lyrics were in this particular notebook, even if they were scrawled on a random page in the back.

Carefully, trying hard not to make noise while ripping the paper, she tore the offending page out. Years of practice passing surreptitious notes in class gave her the skill to remain unnoticed, even while folding it into increasingly small, hard, rectangles. She could throw it away in the wastebasket on the way out.

It didn't matter if she did though, the damn song was already in her head. This one was so much worse than the last one and taking up much more room in her mind than any song had a right to. It was far closer to what she was feeling than any of the others she'd written.

“Karina, are you all right?” her friend Jane whispered behind her.

“I'm fine,” she said, turning her head just enough to mumble back and be heard.

“You're shaking.”

“I'll be fine, I swear” she hissed back. Karina knew she was going to have to sing it out, and she would. It would be just her luck, if she ended up with a popular song because of that clumsy old man.


End file.
